


Your Person

by triwizard_tardis



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defenders
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Coming Out, M/M, Orphan Keith, also no space questing, and not militarily affiliated, i dot know where this is going, i guess, it might not go far, its just a math and science tech magnet school, sort of, the Galaxy Garrison is an elite 6-12 boarding school, will add tags as they apply
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-27 23:01:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10818567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/triwizard_tardis/pseuds/triwizard_tardis
Summary: Keith's been getting into trouble at school, so the school psychologist is here to help.





	Your Person

"So what's his name?" The school psychologist gave him a cool, but not unfriendly stare. Keith squirmed under the doctor's gaze anyway.

"How do you know it's a he?" The teenager challenged weakly. Dr. Mendleson looked unimpressed, waiting patiently for Keith to answer her question. Keith just gave her an uncomfortable, prompting look interrupting his fidgeting to wave vaguely in her direction. She heaved a deep sigh.

"Fine. You have made it quite clear to me, Mr. Kogane, that the people you admire in your life are all – and all have been – men," she answered overprofessionally. Keith winced, so Dr. Mendleson leaned forward and rested her forearms on her knees. "Now, Keith, what's his name?"

"Shiro," Keith mumbled, then cleared his throat and sat up straighter. "Takashi Shirogane."

Dr. Mendleson gave him a small encouraging smile before jotting the name on the clipboard in her lap.

"And how old is Mr. Shirogane?"

"26?"

Dr. Mendleson raised a skeptical sculpted, strawberry blonde eyebrow.

"Are you asking me?" She goaded.

"Well-," Keith stuttered, leaning forward again. "I mean yes and no," he supplied the most confident thing he'd said since starting his session that day, "because I can't remember if that's right. Y'see, he's a leap baby and he technically just turned six this past February."

Dr. Mendleson updated he notes and said, "That would make him 24."

"That's right," Keith commented off-handedly.

"And what is your relationship with Mr. Shirogane?"

Keith fiddled with his thumbs again in thought. What was Shiro to him? He wasn't a friend. Pidge was a friend. Hunk was a friend. Lance was...well, Lance was a problem, but Shiro...

"I guess I'd say he's my brother," Keith settled contentedly. Dr. Mendleson finished scribbling down the knew information.

"So would you like to practice, or did you just want to let me know for my files?" There was that cold yet friendly stare again. Deep purple eyes matching the dull, sleep-deprived bruises so caked in concealer below them. She seemed harsh, Dr. Mendleson. She was straight forward and to the point, but that's what Keith liked about her. That's why of the four psychologists the Galaxy Garrison School kept on staff, Keith kept coming back to her. She was also deceptively approachable. She never turned down the opportunity to hear someone out. She was quite suited for her career. That didn't make Keith feel any less uncomfortable about this conversation. He fidgeted in his seat again, so the doctor continued:

"You have to tell him what you're feeling."

Keith heaved a groan.

"I know!" He proclaimed, throwing his head back against the couch cushions. He rubbed deep into his eyes and growled.

"The whole point of identifying a person is that you have someone outside of our hour-a-week sessions that you trust implicitly. Someone with whom you can process your emotions." Her deep timbre vibrated like the thickest string of a guitar. It didn't quite demand attention, but it did command it. A lot like Shiro. Or Lance. Keith groaned again, this time tossing himself forward.

"But what if it's not okay!" The teenager insisted, "What if — what if–" he stopped abruptly, and stared at his hands in his lap. "What if he kicks me out again?"

Dr. Mendleson's brow furrowed in concern. "Why would your brother have the power to kick you out, and has he done this before?"

Keith's head shot up, eyes wild with panic.

"No! No, Shiro would neve-" the words died on his lips. He took a deep, shaky breath then began to explain. "When I was ten years old, the foster family with whom I had been living for about four months said they loved me. My foster mom told me I was the greatest gift she'd had in a long time, and my foster dad said they were gonna adopt me. A year later saw me in the happiest home I could remember since my birth parents disappeared, my foster parents shipping me off to the best boarding school in the country on hard earned academic scholarship, and I was really happy.

"I came home that summer gushing all about my first year of middle school at The Galaxy Garrison. I told them about my favorite classes, my favorite clubs, my closest friends, this cool mentor program I got into with a high school senior my very first year. They were so proud and happy for me. Then I told them about my first crush. I was in sixth grade! How was I supposed to know it was wrong!?

Keith took a deep breath before continuing: "Still. Just like that, the people that so quickly, and so readily, took me under their wings, gave me a place to call home...they disowned me." The teenager looked to the doctor with pleading eyes. "I don't want Shiro to do the same." Dr. Mendleson moved to offer some words of comfort, but Keith continued before she could begin.

"Six months later, and halfway through my second year, the school pulled me into the office. They said since I no longer had a legal guardian that they couldn't legally board me anymore. They told me unless I could find someone to claim me, they would have to expel me as a ward of the state. I didn't know who else to call, so I panicked and called my now-graduated old mentor: Shiro.

"He immediately leapt to my defense. He claimed me as a temporary legal guardian until he was able to adopt me fully the following summer. He never asked me why my foster parents kicked me out. He told me I didn't have to tell him, either: that their decision was unacceptable no matter the circumstance. Still, what if he changes his mind when I tell him! My foster parents said they loved me unconditionally, too!"

Dr. Mendleson looked forlorn.

"Keith," she began gently, "Shiro is not your foster parents. And bottling this up is causing you a lot of trouble on campus, so if you don't tell him you run the risk of losing your scholarship here again, but this time for completely preventable behavioral reasons. So," she sat up straight with a go-getter's start, "let's roleplay. I'll be Shiro. You'll be you." She dropped her already low voice to a comical octave, squaring her shoulders as she pretended to be Shiro:

"So, Keith," she bellowed, "what did you want to talk to me about?"

Keith chuckled incredulously, but took a deep centering breath all the same.

"Shiro, I'm . . ."


End file.
